90 days - How I did it.

Ok, so I had been fighting this addiction for years. I broke it once around 6 years ago, and stayed clean for about a full year (PMO free for 6 months, then 6 months with fapping and PIV). I had a relapse and was struggling, again, to stay clean. I couldn't figure out how I had broken it, because, honestly, when I kicked the habit before, it felt so easy compared to all the other attempts I had tried in the past, and I didn't know what I did differently. But now, I figured out what made that last attempt, and my current one, so easy compared to all 5 billion of my other reboot attempts:

What my last attempt and current attempt have in common is not only stopping PMO, but I stopped using the internet as a whole.

So, for years, every day I would wake up and grab the phone and scour the news, hunting for new info. Then look at what internet forums I was on, looking for new messages. Social media, seeing new information. And of course, I would also use the computer and phone to hunt for... Other things. This March, I was starting up another reboot after a failed one in Feburary. This time, in part-desperation and part-anger, I told myself I told myself that I wasn't just going to stop fapping, but I was also going to stop going on the internet. I said, I was just going to use YouTube for music (since I have tinnitus and silence is hell) and, since I needed to use my computer for work, I moved my computer into the front room. I had my tablet with headphones and phone next to my bed. On the first of April, I started up again. It was tempting, every morning, to pick up my phone. And, yea, everytime I had to pick up my phone for a text, I actually had to stop myself from opening the Safari app and read the news. Stuck in quarantine, I spent my time reading The Wheel of Time series, playing PS4 and 3DS. Had to do video chats with coworkers, so I did that then immediately closed the laptop and jumped back in the room. It went really well for 12 days, but picking up my tablet for YouTube music, I had a slip up. After the slip up on the 12th of April, I wrapped my tablet in a handtowel and threw it behind my cabinet and started using my alarm clock for a radio and just left that on all day for music and noise. And, from then, it was smooth sailing. There was this shopping phase I went through, though. I did hunting on the 3ds Nintendo store and PS4 store, buying and downloading a lot of games. Probably spent like...$300 on games there, but, it eventually passed. Honestly, it was worth it, since it helped me stay clean. It's been about 3 weeks since I've invited my laptop into my room, and I haven't had any problems, and I'm confident that I wont. The only reason I hopped on NoFap was because I wanted to know when I could get back to healthy activities again. I'm trying to be extra careful that I don't have another relapse. Don't plan on staying, but I just wanted to make this post before I left. Since it worked for me, I hope it might work for some of you.

Seriously. These 90 days have been relatively easy to control, unlike almost all of my other hard mode attempts. If you haven't tried it yet, I HIGHLY recommend that next time you go for a 90 day reboot, don't just cut PMO, but cut out as much of the internet as you possibly can. Be careful about Netflix, too, as that might also act as a P-Sub.